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" I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

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" Sometimes, there can be a slightly condescending assumption that anything unlikable about a female character is a mistake, as if they're a contestant in a beauty pageant and have to seem charming and upbeat all the time. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" It's never that hard for me to imagine what it must feel like to be someone else, whether it's an American teenage girl or a Japanese octogenarian man. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" There's an ongoing 'water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink' situation at my house in terms of both pens and paper. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I don't think I anticipated supporting myself as a writer... I expected I would have to be a teacher or a journalist, that I wouldn't just write full time. It's such a part of my life, and in some ways, it's a very unromantic part of my life. It's almost, to me, like breathing. I don't think about whether I like it or not. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I grew up in Cincinnati, the birthplace of the creamiest and most delicious ice cream with the hugest chocolate chips. Graeter's used to be available only regionally, but an extravagant thing you could do was overnight-ship six pints to another state, in dry ice. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In some ways I think it would be very dignified if I went away for twenty years and then wrote my fourth book. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I always wrote from a very young age, literally from the time I learned how to read and write. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I enjoy reading tips about how to be more organized, and I rarely implement them. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I don't think everyone is equally haunted by high school, but I also don't think it's unusual to be. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I feel like if you read something, and it makes you so curious about a topic that you then go read something else, that's exciting. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I never write something and consciously embed political commentary or any other kind of commentary. I just try to get the characters into a room or out of a room, or onto the plane, or through the grocery store. The political stuff, the class stuff, the gender stuff, is in the air, it's in their interactions, because it's there for all of us. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" My boarding school experience was the only thing I had strong enough feelings to write about for hundreds and hundreds of pages. I can still smell the formaldehyde of the fetal pigs in biology. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" The fact is that in this day and age I don't think any novelist can assume that a book will get attention. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" The nightmare reviewer is the reviewer who has some sort of agenda that precludes him or her responding sincerely to the book. Often, that agenda is seeming clever and/or taking someone who has received more than her fair share of attention down a notch. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I see 'Eligible' as a homage, and I see 'Pride and Prejudice' as a perfect book. You can dispute whether this project is a good idea, but you can't dispute my fondness for the novel. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In 2013, before the publication of my fourth novel, I met with a stylist at Nordstrom. Since then, I've rarely shopped for 'event clothes' on my own. I usually do it with my sisters or a friend; if I'm alone, I take pictures of myself in the dressing room and text them to my sisters. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In general, when any of us get outraged by relatively minor pop-cultural phenomena, I suspect it's a way of relaxing and not focussing on more daunting and intractable problems, whether personal or social. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I'm so trying to give up meat. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" You know, the point of a novel - or to me, the point of a novel, the gift of a novel is to go really deeply inside people's lives and inside their personal experiences. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I'm able to separate fiction and reality. I guess it remains to be seen if other people are. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" I should probably be careful admitting this, but sometimes, when my characters are having a disagreement, it's a disagreement I'm having with myself. I can see both sides of the argument. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" No book I publish will be perfect, but I need to feel I've taken it as far as I can. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" In general, I believe it's fine to have impassioned conversations about Gwyneth Paltrow, but those of us who do so should admit it's a recreational activity and not a moral referendum. "

Curtis Sittenfeld

" Everything 'Atonement' does, it does incredibly well, including depicting characters of varying ages and temperaments and showing the intensity of early romantic love and connection and the very different intensity of haunting regret. "

Curtis Sittenfeld